Tuesday, December 13, 2011

It Takes A Village: How to Make A Throw Rug for $30

Lately I have been starting more projects than any design crazed person should ever start at one time. So what do I do 2 days after I promised myself I would finish all works in progress before starting anything else? I find this totally beautiful, 100% wool, upholstery grade fabric remanent in an equally fabulous stack of fabrics at Post & Gray.

On impulse, Owner Kelly Vieregg and I threw the rug down on the bare floor just to look at the beautiful pattern. I already knew for $20 (yes that's right) that I was going to buy it and figure out what to do with it later. Just my luck...later happened to be in 20 seconds, because I knew immediately that I was going to figure out how to make it a throw rug!

I decided to use a classic wool throw rug from Williams & Sonoma Home that is layered in our master bedroom as a model. It is a gorgeous piece of wool backed with a simple cream canvas. Last week on our fun trip to Mary Jo's with Collin, I had her help pick out a yard and a half of heavy dark gray canvas ($6 a yard) to back to the rug.

Next up, I put in a phone call to my great friend Christy Parbst who also happens to have a super high-end sewing machine. I told her about the project and I swear she was so excited that she invited us over immediately to have an impromptu playdate and work on my project.

After measuring our hallway, I took the measurements and both fabrics over to Christy's. First we cut the wool fabric down to size. We then reversed the fabric and laid it directly down on top of the canvas and cut it to match. Christy and I pinned the fabric all the way around and we got to work sewing. Christy decided to sew the rug just like one would do for a pillow case. When we were just short of the last edge we stopped. Clipped the corners of the rug so that the corners would be more square and flipped the thing inside out! Since we were running out of time, Christy used her machine to finish the seam but in theory one would finish it by hand. I am not kidding when I say in a little of an hour, we made a classic throw rug.

Here is the fabric just thrown on my hallway floor:

Here we are in Christy's basement measuring and cutting the fabric with a little help from her little man Henry:

Christy the sewing goddess cutting her corners:

We flipped it inside out:

And we made this little crafty thing!

Thank you girls for all of your help! This village of friends just rocks!